


little things you do together

by celaenos



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, critrole rsweek, i love these godamn idiots so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 02:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14990876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celaenos/pseuds/celaenos
Summary: Jester’s body suddenly slams down into Beau’s, hugging her tightly. Beau grunts and tries to wiggle away, but Jester only holds on tighter. Sighing, Beau twists her arms up behind her and awkwardly pats Jester. It only seems to serve to encourage her further. Jester hugs her tightly for another few beats or so and then relents, moving back to finish up Beau’s hair. “Beautiful!” she announces, climbing off of Beau and tugging her upwards. She pulls a small mirror out of her bag and shoves it in Beau’s face. “Look!”“Not bad,” Beau says, actually liking it. It’s different. It doesn’t quite look like her, but not in a bad way. “Thanks, Jester,” she says.





	little things you do together

Beau flops down onto the bed, exhausted. Behind her, Jester is still chattering away in half conversation with Kiri. Closing her eyes, Beau tries to tune them out. Her limbs ache, and her hair is full of swamp water and troll residue, but she is too tired right now to get up and do anything about it.

A minute later, Beau can sense Jester’s face hovering directly above her own. Beau waits, but Jester says nothing. She cracks an eye open.

“Hi Beau,” Jester says. “Are you sleeping?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you want to be? I can take Kiri to Fjord, Molly, and Yasha’s room.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I gotta shower anyway.”

Jester’s face scrunches up. “Yes,” she nods. “You do smell.”

“So do _you_ ,” Beau teases, shoving Jester lightly as she sits up. Jester looks aghast at the accusation, and then she lifts up an arm and smells herself.

“Ugh,” she groans. “Where is the shower?”

“That’s what I’m about to go find out,” Beau groans loudly in protest as she stands, shaking out her limbs even as they scream for her not to. Kiri watches and then shakes her feathers out too, Jester laughing and wiggling from her place on the floor. “Gods, you’re both so weird,” Beau says, but it comes out fond. Beau clenches her fists and quickly walks out of the room—that’s been happening way too much lately.

Beau can still hear Jester and Kiri as she makes her way down the stairs, but once she enters the rowdy tavern their voices are eaten up by the noise. Beau makes her way over to the woman behind the bar, in her late fifties, with long jet-black hair tinged with silver streaks. Her smile is warm and affectionate, and Beau can feel herself blushing just slightly underneath her gaze. Her voice cracks like some teenager in puberty and Beau curses internally.

“Where are the showers?” she asks. “My friends and I kind of had an encounter with a troll earlier,” she gestures to the muck in her hair. The woman’s eyes widen, impressed. “I almost died,” Beau adds, for good measure.

“Good thing you didn’t,” the woman says, and points towards a second set of stairs. “Showers are that way. I ask for four copper a person. Water can be expensive.”

“Only copper?” Beau asks, tugging her hands into her pockets and pulling out coins.

The woman shrugs. “People deserve to be able to clean themselves. Most have a few coppers on them if nothing else.”

“You’re a good person,” Beau says and tosses her eight. “My friend is gonna want one too.”

“Enjoy,” she calls as Beau walks towards the stairs. “The water’s not very hot. I am only charging coppers.”

“Shit,” Beau mutters. “Of course, there’s a catch.”

…

…

Beau walks back into the room that she’s sharing with Jester for the night squeezing the water out of her hair.

It’s empty.

She can hear Molly excitedly telling Fjord and Yasha some story from their room, and after a moment or two, she picks up on Kiri’s mimicking as well. There’s been no sign of Caleb or Nott since they disappeared into their room, so Beau assumes that they’re asleep or fine.

She flops back onto the bed, wet hair flying everywhere.

“Beauuuu,” Jester complains, walking into the room behind her. “Now the pillows are all wet.”

Beau merely grunts in response.

Jester climbs onto the bed, and then climbs on top of Beau. “Jester—” Beau starts to complain but Jester squeezes her legs tightly on either side, in anticipation of Beau trying to buck her off.

“I’m putting your hair into a braid so it’s not all over _my_ pillow too,” Jester announces.

“Ugh,” Beau says, but then Jester’s hands are scraping through Beau’s hair, and it actually feels really nice. Beau can’t remember the last time that someone else did her hair. She can’t remember if her mother _ever_ did. Half of why she always throws it up into a bun is because it’s easy. It’s out of her face, she can move around and do whatever.

She tried just hacking it all off once, when she was about nine or so. She found a knife in her father’s things and went to town. He always wanted a boy, Beau figured maybe he’d like her better if she looked like one too.

It had quite the opposite effect.

Beau kept shaving part of it to make him angry, but she never hacked it all the way off again.

Jester’s fingers are practiced, though Beau doesn’t know whose hair she’s done before. She guesses maybe her mom’s, or her own. For the first time in a while, Beau doesn’t ask. She just lies there in silence as Jester twists sections of her hair into a tight braid. Surprisingly, Jester is quiet for a while too. It’s a little unnerving. Beau has gotten used to her chattering away. If pressed, she might even admit that she’s come to enjoy it.

“What’s up with you?” she demands.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you being all weird and quiet?”

Jester pinches the top of her shoulder in response, then yanks at a strand of Beau’s hair when Beau doesn’t react properly.

“OW! _Jester!_ ”

“Well, you were being mean Beau.”

“No, I wasn’t! I was being _nice!”_  

“How is that nice?”

“I was asking you how you were!”

“You called me weird.”

“YOU _ARE_ WEIRD!” Beau tries to twist around and look at her, but Jester has a tight grip on her hair. “That’s what I _like_ about you!”

Jester’s body suddenly slams down into Beau’s, hugging her tightly. Beau grunts and tries to wiggle away, but Jester only holds on tighter. Sighing, Beau twists her arms up behind her and awkwardly pats Jester. It only seems to serve to encourage her further. Jester hugs her tightly for another few beats or so and then relents, moving back to finish up Beau’s hair. “Beautiful!” she announces, climbing off of Beau and tugging her upwards. She pulls a small mirror out of her bag and shoves it in Beau’s face. “Look!”

“Not bad,” Beau says, actually liking it. It’s different. It doesn’t quite look like her, but not in a bad way. “Thanks, Jester,” she says.

“You’re welcome!” Jester flops down, grimacing slightly at the dampness of the pillow. But she smiles when Beau lays back down beside her. “I’m glad that troll didn’t kill you,” she says, a bit subdued.

“Ah, never,” Beau shrugs it off, but when she rolls her head over, Jester is looking at her seriously. “It’s fine Jester,” she stresses. “Look! I’m good!”

“Beau…”

She jumps up to a standing position and then slams back down onto the bed, bouncing Jester’s body up and down. “I’m great!” she jumps again. And again, and then Jester is grinning wildly and rising up too. The two of them jump on the bed laughing and clutching at each other, not hearing the knock on the door.

Fjord walks in, Kiri in tow and he leans against the door frame and grins at them. “Ladies, having fun I see?”

“Come jump Fjord!” Jester hollers.

“I dunno if—”

“Get your butt up here,” Beau demands. “You too Kiri.”

“I don’t really think that bed is made strong enough to handle—”

“FJORD!” Jester hollers. “COME ON!”

Fjord sighs then grins at her. Jester’s enthusiasm is infectious, and Fjord, in particular, is probably more susceptible to her whims than Beau is—she wiggles her eyebrows at him teasingly when he steps up to join them. He glares back, but there is nothing serious about it and Beau only laughs, jumping higher than him.

Kiri flaps into the air when she leaps, her feathers whacking them all in the face until Jester grabs them and jumps with her. Beau’s braid is flying into the air, and when she comes back down onto the bed at the same time as Jester and Fjord do—it breaks. The three of them jerk down hard, landing in a painful pile but laughing too hard to acknowledge it. Jester’s elbow is digging into Beau’s side, and Fjord’s leg is on Beau’s head, Kiri is flapping and walking on top of all of them.

Molly and Yasha appear in the doorway. Beau quickly ducks down when Yasha makes eye contact with her.

“We’re gonna have to pay for that,” Molly declares.

“They’re gonna think we had an orgy!” Jester grins, looking between Fjord and Beau.

“Gross,” Beau shoves Fjord away from her, but he’s blushing under Jester’s gaze. She’s gonna have to give him some shit for that later. He turns and catches Beau’s eye, pointedly looking over at Yasha and then back at Beau.

Or, maybe she’ll just leave it alone for now.

Instead, she grins over at Jester and tackles her into the broken bed, an exaggerated war cry leaving her lips as she goes. Jester screams in delight, and then all of them are involved in a full-fledged pillow and tickle fight. Beau’s aching limbs and the troll long gone from her mind, filled with the sound of her new friend’s laughter instead.


End file.
